Dem
47
GOP
53
Donald Trump, that stable genius, thought of a way to turn the war in Ukraine into a profit center: Have U.S. allies
buy American weapons and then give them to Ukraine. Brilliant. Only the Europeans thought of
something else:
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wants to take the €140 billion in frozen Russian assets in
European banks and use it to buy weapons made in Europe and give them to Ukraine, to boost the European defense
war industry. Germany's Leopard tank is world-class, as is the Eurofighter Typhoon, built by a European consortium. The
Typhoon is a little older than the F-35, but is less finicky, more robust, and not as dependent on the GPS working
perfectly. The F-35 is stealthier than the Typhoon with current radars, though. But Russia doesn't have any F-35s, so
that doesn't matter. And women are allowed to fly Typhoons. Here is a
fully loaded Typhoon.
It can fly at 65,000 feet and hit Mach 2.35 if the pilot is in a hurry. It is not terribly user friendly:
Technically, Ukraine would buy the weapons from the European companies with loaned money (at zero interest), but everyone knows Ukraine is not going to be repaying the loan anytime soon and that is fine with European leaders.
There are a couple of issues here, though. First, Hungary and Slovakia are pro-Russia, so a workaround is needed. So, Ukraine has to agree to spend all the money on European weapons, rather than rebuilding its badly damaged infrastructure. Consequently, this is not a done deal quite yet, but it is getting closer. Negotiations are ongoing. The EU finance ministers will meet in Luxembourg on Oct. 10 to discuss "creative financial engineering." Still, this seems to be largely on track and there is no easy way for Trump to block it. He can't use the Army to attack Europe if the Army is tied up invading America, as he told the generals and admirals it would be on Tuesday. (V)